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This paper aims to outline work to support the employability agenda in the Library at the University of Sheffield, set in the context of debates about the nature of employability, employability skills and information literacy in the workplace.

The paper starts with a brief review of literature on employability and student skills in the UK higher education sector, the place of information literacy as an employability attribute and information literacy in the workplace. It goes on to outline work done in the Library at the University of Sheffield to support the employability agenda. This includes the development of a commercial awareness workshop in collaboration with other services and the incorporation of student and alumni voices in an employability guide.

The literature reviewed highlights the differences between information literacy in the workplace and academia. This could present challenges and opportunities in promoting information literacy as an employability attribute. The case study highlights the benefits of working in collaboration with students and services beyond the library in the employability arena.

The approaches taken in Sheffield may be of interest to other institutions looking to develop support for the employability agenda.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the historical development of library and information science (LIS) teaching and research in the University of Sheffield's Information School since its founding in 1963.

The history is based on published materials, unpublished school records, and semi-structured interviews with 19 current or ex-members of staff.

The School has grown steadily over its first half-century, extending the range of its teaching from conventional programmes in librarianship and information science to include cognate programmes in areas such as health informatics, information systems and multi-lingual information management.

There are very few published accounts of the history of LIS departments.

By one of those coincidences that seem to abound in academic life and are probably not coincidences at all, we have recently found ourselves, quite suddenly, in possession of a very great deal of information about the language barrier and about the information requirements of the social sciences. This is a consequence of two recent publications: the Sheffield report on two years of intensive work on the language barrier in an academic community and Bath University Library's INFROSS report. The former looks at the language barrier from the point of view of all disciplines, including the social sciences; the latter looks at the information requirements and problems of social scientists from a very comprehensive point of view and includes amongst the problems that of the language barrier. The two reports therefore complement one another very well, and in my paper this evening I propose to draw on both of them, in an attempt to look at the language barrier from the social scientist's point of view. I shall normally draw more heavily on the Sheffield report than that of Bath—mainly because it is the one with which I am most familiar—though when I came to look at possible solutions, the Bath findings will certainly carry a good deal of weight, as you will see.

This paper reports a study of the use and value of MSc in Information Studies/Information Management dissertations produced during the seven years, 1988–89 to 1994–95, at the Department of Information Studies in the University of Sheffield. Responses to a questionnaire that was sent to students, supervisors and external collaborating organisations showed that they all used the dissertations in various ways, as did other Departmental staff and students. Some dissertations lead to publications in the open literature, and a citation analysis showed that these publications are successful in bringing dissertation results to a wider readership.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the usefulness of the concept to thinking about Research Data Management (RDM). The concept of “wicked problems” seeks to differentiate very complex, intractable challenges from tamer issues where approaches to problem solving are well-understood.

The paper is based on and co-authored by a collaboration of practitioners from libraries, information technology and research administration, with facilitators from the Sheffield Information School. Participants worked together in two-day-long workshops to understand the wicked problem concept and advice on leadership in wicked problem contexts.

Participants concurred that RDM had many features of a wicked problem and most of Grint’s advice on leadership for wicked problems also resonated. Some elements of the issue were simple; participants were optimistic about improving the situation over time. Participants were resistant to the more negative or fatalistic connotations of the phrase “wicked problem”. Viewing RDM as a wicked problem is an interesting way of looking at it as a challenge for support professionals.

The notion of a wicked problem is a generative concept that can be usefully added to professional vocabulary.

The paper captures an in-depth response from practitioners to the notion of wicked problems as a lens for examining RDM.

The modernisation agenda in health and social care is concerned with providing an integrated service for patients/clients and their carers. This paper focuses on the nature of practice‐based learning environments that support the development of students as effective interprofessional practitioners for the modernised health and social care services.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the features that international student users prefer for next generation OPACs.

A total of 16 international students of the University of Sheffield were interviewed in July 2008 to explore their preferences among potential features in next generation OPACs. A semi‐structured interview schedule with images of mock‐up screens was used.

The results of the interviews were broadly consistent with previous studies. In general, students expect features in next generation OPACs should save their time, be easy to use and relevant to their search. This study found that recommender features and features that can provide better navigation of search results are desired by users. However, Web 2.0 features, such as RSS feeds and those features which involved user participation were among the least popular.

This paper produces findings of relevance to any academic library seeking to implement a next‐generation OPAC.

There have been no previous published research studies of users' preferences among possible features of next‐generation OPACs.

The purpose of this paper is to report how an evaluation tool originally developed for Age-Friendly Cities was pilot-tested in the context of the Dementia Friendly Community (DFC) initiative of the city of Sheffield/UK. It presents finding and outputs on which other communities with dementia friendly agendas can draw.

The original evaluation tool was adapted to a focus on dementia friendliness. Data collection involved scoping conversations, documentary analysis, interviews and group discussions. Following evidence appraisal, Sheffield’s approach to dementia friendliness was assessed. A local steering group was central to the study.

The evidence indicates areas of strength in Sheffield’s approach to dementia friendliness: involvement of older people; service provision; collaboration; monitoring and evaluation. Scope for improvement was identified around resource allocation, and use of existing guidance on dementia friendliness. Recommendations for policy and practice include enhancing pooling of resources, more detailed recording of resources allocated to dementia-related activity, and collection of evidence on how people affected by dementia have shaped the city’s DFC initiative. Key research outputs are an adaptable logic model and an emerging evaluation framework for DFCs.

The study was a short pilot with limited resources. Its findings and outputs must be considered preliminary.

The findings and outputs provide a basis for further research. The study has suggested key components of an evaluation framework for DFCs. It is informing ongoing work to develop such a framework.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the design and methodology of the REC-CONNECT project and to determine whether a co-produced approach to research in this area between those with lived experience, those delivering recovery support, and those investigating recovery evidence, generated greater project impact.

A co-productive approach was taken during project planning, training delivery, data collection and community connecting activity. Workshop evaluations were collected at each training session that provided data on worker/peer volunteer wellbeing, workshop efficacy and organisational factors. Community connectors used REC-CAP for evaluating improvements in clients’ community engagement.

Whilst co-production as a research approach broke down barriers between theory and practice and delivered a wider community asset map, a number of hurdles emerged: buy-in of all participants; culture/competing agendas; overcoming sense of disenfranchisement of people in recovery; and resources, tools and timescales of research requirements.

This is a small study in Sheffield. As such, data are limited. However, the implications spread to other vulnerable groups in other areas are evidenced, and the principles offer sustainability and partnership that go beyond time-limited projects.

Co-production as an approach to research in the substance misuse field has a meaningful impact on the “end-user” of people in recovery through empowerment, better connected recovery pathways and evidence-to-practice-based support models.

The project advanced the emerging principle of reciprocal asset-based community development and designed a co-produced model to create a team of professional, volunteer and peer community connectors to engage and connect new individuals to recovery with existing community assets, and who themselves emerged as a community asset through the project.